The Dow Jones industrial average fell 56.99, or 0.43%, to 13,280.67. The Standard & Poor''s 500 index fell 7.77, or 0.52%, to 1,485.12, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 5.19, or 0.20%, to 2,568.97. Treasury bonds rose after the weak durable goods data drove investors to the safe-haven assets. The 10-year Treasury note''s yield fell to 5.04% from 5.09% late Tuesday.


[R]9:30AM The FTSE 100 is lower in mid-morning trade Wednesday.[/R]

The UK market is down on Wednesday. In late morning trade, the FTSE 100 lost 32.2 points to 6,527.1.

Political news

Tony Blair stepped down as prime minister today to make room for Gordon Brown, Chancellor of the Exchequer in Mr. Blair’s cabinet, to head the UK Government.

Advancers

Bus and train group Stagecoach was one of the very few advancers in the morning, reporting a big rise in full year profits Wednesday tracking strong growth in its bus and rail operations in the UK and North America. The stock rose 5.3%.

Hikma Pharmaceuticals surged after saying that first half revenues are expected to increase about 40%. The shares of the company advanced 5.4%.

Decliners

Northern Rock, a mortgage bank, plummeted 9.6% as it downgraded its profit guidance quoting a rise in funding costs. The bank added that annual profits would grow by 15 %, less than the 17 % anticipated by the market.

The lender was also responsible for the sharp decline in the mid-cap index, where Paragon Group, a specialist mortage lender, fell 6.4% and Bradford & Bingley lost 3.7%.

Other banks followed suit and plunged. Alliance & Leicester was off 2.9%, HBOS declined 2.3% and Lloyds TSB was down 2.1%.

Seven FTSE 100 constituents were trading without further rights to their latest dividend payment. Among them were United Utilities which lost 4 %, Tate & Lyle falling 2.7 % to 568p and Yell Group retreating 2.8 %.


[R]9:00AM Market futures declined amid weak durable goods orders.[/R]

U.S. stock futures moved to the downside Wednesday, weighed down by an unexpectedly steep decline in durable-goods orders in May. However, better-than-forecast earnings from Nike Inc. and Oracle Corp. bucked the downward trend.

Nike (NKE: chart) jumped 5% in pre-open trade after posting a 32% profit rise and the fastest growth in orders in the last four years. Oracle (ORCL: chart) gained 0.5% after reporting a 23% profit rise in Q4, helped by acquisition deals.

In other corporate news, Nuvelo (NUVO: chart) slipped 22% after the biopharmaceutical terminated its collaboration with Bayer on a blood-clot drug. Guitar Center (GTRC: chart) soared 19.9% after agreeing to be bought by Bain Capital in a deal worth $1.9 billion. S&P 500 futures dropped 4.1 points at 1,493.70 and Nasdaq 100 futures dropped 4.5 points at 1,921.00. Dow industrial futures fell 26 points.